ArtsBuild Ontario Newsletter 2012

posted on 7:24 AM, January 10, 2012

NEW & NOW

Welcome to the first edition of the ArtsBuild Ontario newsletter in 2012! Since it's a new year full of new possibilities and exciting changes, we've renamed our newsletter to "NEW & NOW", which best captures the spirit of this update going forward.

And now read on to learn about the many innovative projects we have on the go to help you with your organization’s facilities management… we guarantee you’ll be impressed!

FACILITIES PORTAL

We’re proud to announce the ArtsBuild Ontario Facilities Portal will be launching in early 2012! The Facilities Portal is the first comprehensive and interactive online advocacy tool to centrally house current information about non-profit arts organizations’ current facilities and facilities needs. We here at ArtsBuild Ontario will use this information to report accurately on the state of arts facilities in Ontario, thus strengthening and supporting the need for increased investment in safe, green and adequate cultural infrastructure.

Stay tuned for Portal registration information coming soon! In the meantime, we’ll be hosting FREE workshops across Ontario to educate and raise awareness of municipal cultural planning, as well as give participants a sneak preview of the Portal in action. If you’d like to attend one of the workshops listed below, please click on the appropriate link for more information and to register. Additional workshop dates and locations will be announced shortly; always check out our blog for the most up-to-date information!

The Facilities Portal was created because you, arts organizations across Ontario, told us that accurate and up-to-date information about facilities would help build the case for investment. Now that the Facilities Portal is nearly ready to go, we need your help to spread the word: in order for the Portal to do the best job it can, we need participation from all arts organizations and all municipalities across Ontario… so please, write about it in your newsletters, Tweets, Facebook updates, ANYWHERE that it can help get the message out!

The process of planning and building a new facility is often completely foreign territory for us here in the arts world. To help navigate this obstacle, we’ve developed PLAN IT / BUILD IT as an all-inclusive guide to the planning and implementation of capital projects. It can be used as a big picture way of understanding projects, but also as a very detailed guide to the steps and timings essential to successful projects. Plus it offers a multitude of reference and sample documents such as RFPs, contracts, budgets, proposals, and more for you to use as templates for your own project… extremely helpful stuff! PLAN IT / BUILD IT will be ready to roll out in March 2012.

NATURAL GAS COLLABORATIVE

We’re currently exploring the possibility of a natural gas collaborative. You may have been a part of our recent survey that was sent to over 800 arts organizations, arts councils, municipalities, and arts service organizations to gauge the interest of participating in a natural gas collaborative. Essentially, the natural gas collaborative would supply arts organizations with well-priced gas and cost stability, with all revenue generated to be re-invested into the arts sector in the form of a granting fund.

The preliminary results of the survey tell us that the arts sector is very interested in this and other programs. Throughout the next few months, we will continue testing interest and demand. We anticipate that by this spring we will have completed our due diligence and final decisions will be made. We’ll keep you posted on this exciting new venture!

INFRASTRUCTURE ONTARIO'S LOAN PROGRAM

Infrastructure Ontario is a crown corporation whose loan program offers low-cost and long-term financing to help its clients renew infrastructure. Currently, for the arts sector, only non-profit professional arts training organizations are eligible for loans. That means only a small percentage of organizations have access to these loans. ArtsBuild Ontario is presently working hard to have the Loan Program expanded to include ALL arts organizations. We’ll give you updates along the way, and, in the meantime, keep your fingers crossed!

As you can see, we’ve been very busy researching, planning and developing new tools to help you meet the facilities needs of your organization. We’ll have more exciting news to tell you about in the coming weeks, so be sure to look for our next newsletter in your inbox in February. In the meantime, check out our blog for the most up-to-date ArtsBuild Ontario info!